Amnesty International has said the Government should end its “hypocritical” abortion laws as new figures show Irish women had more than 24,000 abortions in England and Wales between 2010 and 2014.

In total, 19,947 terminations for women from the Republic and 4,652 from theNorthern Ireland were recorded in the four-year period, according to data from the department of health in London.

The figures also reveal that 152 terminations were recorded for girls aged under 16 from the Republic and 69 for under 16s from the North.

“These findings once again prove that restrictive abortion laws in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland don’t prevent women and girls from having abortions,” said Amnesty International My Body, My Rights campaigner Grainne Teggart.